Everglades bass fishing guides – Florida’s biggest python has just been caught in the everglades. The monster measured 17.7 feet and was carrying 87 eggs. It looks like burmese pythons have adapted quite well to their new home in the everglades.

The snake was “initially captured March 6 and returned to the wild days later after being fitted with two radio transmitters and other devices to track its movements. … The snake was recaptured April 19 and euthanized shortly afterward.”

Researchers at Everglades National Park are studying such snakes in an attempt to figure out how to manage them. As thePost adds:

“Pythons have become a huge issue for state wildlife managers. They’re aggressive enough to consume most other species they come into contact with — even deer and alligators. About 1,800 pythons have been removed from the park and nearby areas since 2002.”

The Everglades is home to a growing population of the invasive Southeast Asian pythons, many of which have either escaped into or been dumped into the wild.

Sometimes adopted as a pet, the Burmese python is one of nine species of constrictor snakes—and about a million individual constrictors—that have been imported into the United States over the past 30 years, according to the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service.

Burmese Python Finding Florida “Ideal”

Florida’s previous biggest-snake record-holder was a 16.8-foot-long (5.12-meter-long) Burmese python. Finding a bigger one “is a great indication that conditions are really perfect for them,” said J.D. Willson, a biologist and snake expert at the University of Arkansas.

Burmese pythons, he said, grow biggest where there’s plentiful food—in captivity, they can reach lengths of up to 20 feet (6 meters).

A Burmese python as big as the new titleholder “should be able to eat any native animal in South Florida”—even Florida panthers, Willson said. And in fact, recent study showed that Burmese pythons are preying on a wide range of native species, some of which happen to be in decline.

No one knows what impact these monstrous pythons will have on the ecosystem in the Florida everglades.

Most people are doom and gloom and think it will be disastrous in the long run. Other’s are more optimistic and say mother nature will find a way to adapt.